[Ran Morrissett]

Tom Doak has built some corkers. Pacific Dunes, Ballyneal, Barnbougle, Cape Kidnappers and Old Macdonald are all hailed by GOLF Magazine as world top 100, many with ease. Is it a stretch to suggest that a course on a rocky Montana ranch can be held in as high esteem as those five courses that are so ideally situated? Shockingly no, for reasons that I endeavor to detail in its course profile now posted under Courses by Country and Architecture Timeline.
 
Recent photo threads by George Freeman and Peter Ferlicca captured the allure of the Rock Creek so heading there, I knew that I was in for a treat - but how much of one? My two golf buddies outside of North Carolina - Ted 'The Braying Donkey' Sturges and Joe 'I've only played 4 new courses this week' Andriole - each played there and both nonchalantly  awarded it a Doak 8. To my mind that doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what's been accomplished and I sent them mean texts from Deer Lodge politely inquiring after their mental health.
 
Of course, I may be biased as I date a girl from Montana, Big Sky is my favorite ski mountain in North America and nothing is more enjoyable to read than Wallace Stegner's writings on the American west. I love this part of the world and as well as Rock Creek's big picture stuff - golf, hiking, being outdoors, peace, quiet, eagles soaring, big skies, yummy fattening bacon in the morning and beef at night, no asphalt, not many people, a Western sensibility for what you need (and don't need). As you meander along the 6+ mile dirt entrance drive (Yeamans - eat your heart out!) your worries fade. Bottom line: I side with Jim Franklin's passionate, no holds barred viewpoint.
 
From a design perspective, a massive amount of superior work occurred at Rock Creek - the routing, width, grassing scheme, the 'dainty' preservation of the natural ground contours despite working among mega ton boulders; literally everything (even the bridge on 13 is one of the neatest I have ever seen on a course). The need for width was CRUCIAL, if everyone were to enjoy golf in these rocky environs, but it needed to be 'intelligent width.' The number of ways that Doak & crew accomplished that is a-m-a-z-i-n-g and is highlighted (hopeful!) within the course profile. For example, the 500 yard par 4 14th calls for positioning your bombed tee ball on a diagonal between landforms for a green set off at 2 o'clock. On the tee of the following hole (a par 4 some 200 yards shorter!), the challenge is to decipher the ramifications of the day's hole location as to which side of the 60 yard wide fairway you should seek. 
 
So it goes all day, alternating between power hitting and precise shot-making. The shifting challenges occur seamlessly and constitute a design balance with few equals. The first hole begins with a Principal's Nose feature while the second fairway is wide open down the middle. On the first par 3, Rock Creek slashes front left to back right between the tee and green and the last par 3 has Rock Creek angled the opposite way along the left of the green. There are short par 4s on each nine: one is uphill to a domed green and the other downhill to a wide but shallow green. The huge par 4 on the front (the 7th) swings left while the big one on the back moves right. The back-to-back par 3s on the inward nine can differ in length by - wait - 10 clubs! Is it just me or is such variety/diversity/range nearly unmatched in world golf?

Rock Creek is a wonderful concoction where everything imaginable is asked of the golfer in a setting that (unexpectedly!) appeals as much as any other. Jim Taylor of Clear Creek Tahoe fame always pushed me to visit here and no surprise to find that he was so incredibly right.

Best,

[Philip Gawith]

A pleasure to read as always Ran. The pictures tell the story well enough but you do a grand job of evoking what a joy it must be to play this course. I played Sebonack the other day which is no slouch when it comes to scenery, but this looks even better!

Philip

[David_Elvins]

Thanks Ran,  Great write up. 

Is the 5th hole similar to the 2nd at St Andrews Beach?

[Tom_Doak]

Thanks Ran,  Great write up. 

Is the 5th hole similar to the 2nd at St Andrews Beach?

I would not have thought to compare the two.  The hole at Rock Creek is 80 yards longer and 30 feet uphill; the altitude makes up for some of that, but only the flat bellies are thinking about driving it.  I suppose the playing angles are somewhat similar, although the fairway at Rock Creek is more diagonal, so the short hitter plays left of the line to the green and the long hitter to the right.

The 15th is the real drivable par-4 at Rock Creek.

[JBovay]

Ran,

Thanks for the fascinating and in-depth profile. You always do a great job of explaining just what makes the best golf courses so compelling.

Tom,

I am really curious about this comment in Ran's profile:

As Doak notes, ‘We’ve built a lot of wide fairways but these are something else. The impetus here was all the rocks in the ground.  We wanted to make a wide enough playable area so that people wouldn’t be taking drops [legal or illegal?] to avoid hitting a rock on their second shot … and once we tore up the ground to sift through it, it made more sense to make it all fairway than to have a belt of rough between the fairway and the native roughs.’

At what point in the process did you and your team decide to "make it all fairway"? As you were sifting through rocks in the first fairway? After you'd plowed several fairways? And how did this affect some of the subtleties of the design? e.g., it appears that the right side of the first landing area on #10 is relatively flat and it would be an advantageous place to play from. If it were rough, perhaps there wouldn't be a need to bring the bunkers at the second dogleg quite so far to the left. I know you must have had to make all kinds of tweaks to the design compared with if the fairways were 10 yards narrower. Will be interested to hear your thoughts, thanks!

JB

[Thomas Dai]

Very impressive and many thanks for the splendid profile and photo's. Some questions.

What kind of wildlife is there around the property and does it effect the course and did it effect construction and now maintenance?

How easy-difficult is the course to walk? The reason I ask this is because I used to run quite a bit a long time back and recall the difficulty in running at higher altitudes when not used to them.

Does construction/maintenance at altitude present any particular difficulties?

atb

PS - maybe it's my sense of humour but whenever I see the words Rock Creek it's hard not to think of Blazing 'Rock-Ridge' Saddles! Another cracking western - a movie so good a hole should named after it!

[Eric Smith]

PS - maybe it's my sense of humour but whenever I see the words Rock Creek it's hard not to think of Blazing 'Rock-Ridge' Saddles! Another cracking western - a movie so good a hole should named after it!

No. 6 Dance 

[Craig Sweet]

Nice write up Ran.

Rock Creek is indeed a special place...

[Jim Franklin]

Nice write up. I wish I had your writing skills.

If we can only get a few RCCC paintings like Ballyneal...

[Jeff_Mingay]

What a beautiful property, showcased by what is obviously an excellent routing. Those are some of the prettiest bunkers I've ever seen, too. Congrats Tom and co. Very, very nice.

[George Freeman]

How easy-difficult is the course to walk? The reason I ask this is because I used to run quite a bit a long time back and recall the difficulty in running at higher altitudes when not used to them.

Thomas -

In my opinion the course is quite walkable.  It's obviously not as easy as a tightly routed parkland layout on flat ground, but it's also absolutely not a "cart ball" course.  The green to tee walks are all very manageable (most very short) and as can be seen in the pictures, there are walking paths from tees to fairways giving the walker a direct path (not to mention the bridge on 13!).

Really the only challenge of the walk is in the middle stretch of the front nine when the course does a decent amount of climbing.  It's a hilly course, but the enviorment is so beautiful and serene that the course would make a great hiking route even if you weren't playing!

Unfortunately I don't think many people walk the course (just based on my very small sample size of observations).    

Rock Creek is a very special place.

[Carl Nichols]

Does RCCC allow push carts?

[Tom_Doak]

At what point in the process did you and your team decide to "make it all fairway"? As you were sifting through rocks in the first fairway? After you'd plowed several fairways? And how did this affect some of the subtleties of the design?

We decided right at the start that it would all be fairway.  Actually it's the same bluegrass in the fairways and roughs, so if we wanted to narrow it, we could do so just by changing the mowing lines.

Also the right side of #10 is not nearly as flat as it looks in photos ... there are not many flat spots at Rock Creek.

[Ben Sims]

I think this course--more than any of Renaissance's--showcases the importance of not only bunker location, but scaling. It reminds me of some of the long views at Crystal Downs. In particular the photos of the right side of #3 and the first photo of #8 showcase what is some next level bunkering. They seamlessly match the terrain because the lines match the landforms both immediately around them and also in the distance. I wish I could pull the photos and draw parallel lines on the bunker edges and background landforms to illustrate what I'm saying.  

Surely Rock Creek photographs better than any of Tom's courses. So much texture.

[PCCraig]

Ran,

Thank you for posting this exceptional write-up. You manage to do Rock Creek justice in a photo tour, which is tough to do.

I played Rock Creek about a year and a half ago when I drove up from Big Sky in the morning, and still managing to make it back for a 3pm wedding (nothing like getting passed on the right when you're doing 95mph by a VW Bug   ). I'm extremely glad I made the effort, because the golf course is just incredible. For example, I would put it ahead of Doak's Pacific Dunes and considering the accolades that course receives, I'm constantly surprised how Rock Creek doesn't get more attention.

The routing is really neat, and it reminded me a lot of Ross' Northland CC in Duluth, where the front nine gradually works its way up a hill with some shorter, strategic uphill holes, before the player tumbles back down the hill in a dramatic fashion. There are just so many great holes at Rock Creek...the 5th, the 7th, the 8th, the 10th, the 13th (especially from the back tee), 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th are all just jawdroppingly awesome.

Personally, I found the course very walkable, even though at the time I was told I was the first person to walk the course all year (this was after Memorial Day, but still May). I believe I walked the course in roughly 3 hours, and I was hardly rushing around as I spent a whole bunch of time at each green putting and chipping around to the different pin positions. Plus, considering the wide fairways, I found it was hard to lose a ball if you were driving the ball moderately well...the challenge (as Ran discusses), is putting yourself in the best positions off the tee, not just hitting the fairway.

The scale of the golf course, and the entire complex, has to be seen to be believed. 40,000 acres is a whole lot of land, but it really adds to the experience when you turn into the "entrance" and then proceed to drive 20 minuets through grazing cattle.

Again, thank you for the great write-up.

[Morgan Clawson]

Amazing looking course and setting!

I like what you said at the end:

Golf is meant to be an invigorating pursuit, one that makes you appreciate all the good things in life. That happens in techni-color at Rock Creek. The most time-honored design features are found in an environment one wouldn’t typically associate with classical golf. The grandeur of the course’s setting and the shots that are required re-awaken the spirit. With child-like delight, you stay outdoors and play golf until dark.

 

[Jon Cavalier]

What a gorgeous golf course! Wonderful profile and fantastic photos, Ran. And congrats to Tom on putting together such a beautiful course.

[Michael Goldstein]

Ran, thanks for another brilliant write up.

[Jeff Tang]

Ran, great write up and pics and congrats to Tom and crew.   The course looks just about perfect to me. A mix of fun holes, great terrain, and incredible scenery. It also looks from the pictures like it would play running. One of the courses at the very top of my can't wait to see list.

[Brian Finn]

Ran,
Thank you for another outstanding course profile.  This one brings back particularly fond memories for me, thinking back to last summer when my family and I visited RCCC. The course is brilliant, fun, and thankfully not crowded because the urge to go straight from 18 green to the first tee is overwhelming.  This one is not to be missed.

[Ian Andrew]

I think the strength is the 3rd to 7th.
The best stretch comes at the toughest point in the routing ... "the climb."
All four holes stand out to me.

It think RCCC has the best set of fours Tom's done.
I think its a better course than others found on "the list."

[MClutterbuck]

At what point in the process did you and your team decide to "make it all fairway"? As you were sifting through rocks in the first fairway? After you'd plowed several fairways? And how did this affect some of the subtleties of the design?

We decided right at the start that it would all be fairway.  Actually it's the same bluegrass in the fairways and roughs, so if we wanted to narrow it, we could do so just by changing the mowing lines.

Also the right side of #10 is not nearly as flat as it looks in photos ... there are not many flat spots at Rock Creek.

Tom,

The course looks awesome! It is great to see your concepts adapted to a course in the mountains. Can't wait to visit. Curious, why was bluegrass chosen over fescues?

Marcos

[John Kavanaugh]

If you are sort of anal about your custom irons should you leave them at home? I have never understood why the rocks in the rough get a pass.

[Tom_Doak]

If you are sort of anal about your custom irons should you leave them at home? I have never understood why the rocks in the rough get a pass.

We went pretty far out to remove the rocks, but if you're wild enough, you can find them.  That was the toughest trade-off to make on the course, and I think it holds the course back in a few people's eyes ... even though if there was a lake in the same location, they would give it a pass.

[DMoriarty]

We went pretty far out to remove the rocks, but if you're wild enough, you can find them.  That was the toughest trade-off to make on the course, and I think it holds the course back in a few people's eyes ... even though if there was a lake in the same location, they would give it a pass.

With the fairways as wide as they are, this seems like nitpicking in the extreme. It is glacial moraine, and there are rocks in glacial moraines.  It is too much to expect that the entire site ought to have been sanitized to prevent the possibility of a club scratch in the native.  

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